[lamford]

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IMPs converted to VPs. 8-board match.

One man, one goal
Ha, one mission
One heart, one soul
Just one sore loser

One suit beats slam here. Which is it?

[LBengtsson]

I would put ♦A on table but small ♠ is lead that might be good. ♣ or ♥ lead too slow.

[nige1]

Lamford 'IMPs converted to VPs. 8-board match.
One man, one goal
Ha, one mission
One heart, one soul
Just one sore loser
One suit beats slam here. Which is it?
+++++++++++++++++
Again agree with LBengtsson. I rank
1. ♦A Safer than normal because declarer denied a plain-suit king.
2. ♥
3. ♠
4. ♣

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[mikeh]

This is an odd hand to have on this auction. We have 9 hcp and the opps have had a power auction to slam, so either responder has some unusual shape or partner is nearly bust.

At the table, I'd like to find out more about the implications of their bidding. Does 2N deny a long suit of his own, or could be be something like 2=4=2=5?

If I lacked the diamond Queen, I'd happily lead the spade 9, hoping partner has the King. Btw, I infer that responder has the spade Ace and the diamond King, since otherwise he'd driven to slam potentially off two cashing tricks in either spades or diamonds (although his control may be shortness).

I lead the 9 partly to persuade declarer not to float it to his hypothetical J (or to insert dummy's Jack, when dummy has AK(x)(x), and partly and almost surely unnecessarily to ensure that partner switches, and dummy likely makes it clear what he should be switching to should he win trick one.

My hcp come close to persuading me that hoping for the spade King over there is nearly futile, so what else is there?

The only card that makes sense otherwise is the diamond Ace. Not that we are taking two quick tricks in the suit. That should be impossible unless dummy is insane.

However, it is possible that leading Ace and another will hit a home run. It is possible, I think, that dummy is 5=4 minors, although I'd be asking questions at the table (especially online where partner doesn't know what I am asking), and that partner has a stiff (or even that dummy is 4=4 minors and opener is 2=2=5=4)

The other upside is when diamonds are the equivalent of KJ10x in dummy and xx in hand. Now declarer is far more likely to play me for Ax(x) than for AQx(x) and so will win the king, pull trump and run the Jack.

I'm hoping, in this scenario, to find something like

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[hv=pc=n&s=sjt4hkq62d64caq72&n=sak2ha5dkjt3ck853]133|200|don't worry about the spots, I didn't check the actual hand, just catered to shape and hcp


still up in the air, but I think that against solid opps, I will play them to have virtually all of the missing hcp, and definitely not be off the spade King, so I will lead the diamond Ace. I only hope I did so at the table faster than it took me to choose it here:) Note I gave them really bad club spots, to make declarer feel that he cannot take too many ruffs in either hand without risking an overruff.

[lamford]

Thanks all. Interesting thoughts. The only lead to beat the contract genuinely is a heart even though North has AQxx and South KJx!:

https://tinyurl.com/y6xnamqd

There is a certain je ne sais quoi about the heart lead which tangles declarer's entries in a deadly manner. If you found it for the right reason, don't play rubber bridge against me!